Llewellyn Edwards

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Sir Llewellyn Edwards, AC (born August 2, 1935) is the twelfth and current Chancellor of the University of Queensland and a former Queensland state politician and state Liberal Party Leader. He was elected the Chancellor of the University of Queensland in 1993 and has held the office since.

Sir Llew (as he is popularly known) is a graduate in medicine of the University of Queensland and received an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the university in 1988.

In 1984 he was made a Knight Bachelor, and in 1989, a Companion of the Order of Australia.

[edit] Political career

Sir Llew entered Queensland state parliament as the Liberal Party Member for Ipswich in 1972. He was the Minister for Health between 1974-1978 and then held the position of State Liberal Party Leader, Deputy Premier and Treasurer until 1983 when he retired from State Parliament to take on the role of Chairman and Chief Executive for World Expo '88 held in Brisbane. He is a well known and popular public figure and could often be seen walking through the Expo site cheerfully greeting people.

[edit] Involvement in the James Hardie asbestos products controversy

Sir Llew is the current chairman of the Medical Research and Compensation Foundation set up by James Hardie Industries to provide financial compensation for victims of asbestos related diseases caused by their products. He was a director of James Hardie Industries for a decade and has criticised the company for providing insufficient funds for the foundation, stating that they underestimated the liability of claims.

The foundation was established in 2001 with the intention of being a fully funded compensation scheme. However a New South Wales government enquiry into the compensation fund reported that compensation case liabilty could be ten times higher than the initial claims of James Hardie Industries when the foundation was established.

Sir Llew has said that he could not guarantee the existence of the foundation past 2008 because there would be no funds remaining for payment to compensation cases. He maintains that this situation can only be averted if James Hardie Industries provides at least another $1 billion to the foundation in addition to the startup fund of $298 million.

Sir Llew has stated that if he was aware of the true extent of James Hardie Industries' liabilities he would not have taken on the role of chairman of the foundation.